How design can impact your company

17 April 2017

By
Christel

Maybe you spotted them already on the webshop or in the larger Etos stores, but Yoni has something new in store for our tampon lovers: The Mega Stash! Stock up in style with our beautiful Mega Stash!* Check them out here at our webshop.

Mariah and Wendelien always wanted to present the organic cotton option in a way that would make women proud rather than shameful when it comes to their tampons, pads and liners. Cause why should we play hide and seek with a product most women need every month? This is why Mariah and Wendelien spent a lot of time and attention to Yoni’s design.

But the Yoni design and iconic ‘Y’ didn’t come easy. It was quite a journey to find the right creatives to work with who would translate Mariah and Wendelien’s story – Yoni’s story – into a design and brand which would match. Not long ago Mariah gave a workshop on this journey, explaining their choices and how Mariah and Wendelien believe design can impact your company. For the people that missed out read on:

When Mariah and Wendelien took a leap of faith end of summer 2013 to start Yoni, it wasn’t clear what the brand should be called. Even though Mariah and Wendelien managed to tell the story full of conviction, translating this story into a brandname and design was a difficult step. When they met design agency Thonik, everything fell into place. “We found each other in the story.” as Mariah says. Thonik understood the story behind Yoni and this was their starting point from which Yoni was born. Thonik’s graphic style became the foundation of Yoni’s design, which echo’s through everything we continue to do. See for example below, the #Changemakers poster designs they designed for us for our International Women’s Day this past March:

Iconic ‘Y’

Together with Thonik we came up with the name Yoni and the iconic ‘Y’ logo. Using the word Yoni as our brandname made perfect sense as it actually means Vagina in Sanskrit as well as Origin of Life or Female power. It also is a first name, so in that sense feels familiar. In the Netherlands there are 335 women called Yoni as well as 133 men with the name Yoni. The iconic ‘Y’ on the packaging isn’t only the first letter of Yoni, but also graphically can be seen as reflecting the women’s body.

The foundations set by Thonik’s graphic design used on our packaging has been the starting point for all other design, photography and videos as have been beautifully executed by various creatives like Ine&Sanne, Grrr, Anne Claire de Breij and Esther Grass Vergara.

Yoni.care

Why did we choose for the URL .care and not .com or .nl? Right after the brand Yoni was born, the url .care became available. And since Yoni is all about caring for your vagina, it made perfect sense to use this url instead of a more generic one.

Design as Impact

Still today Yoni’s design remains important. Design for Yoni is a way to communicate and start a conversation as an important step in breaking the taboos around the female body, menstruation and reproductive health. It’s a way to express our ideas and vision and to make an impact on our current society. Check out our Instagram and Pinterest as two of the media where we further develop and play with our visual style.

We are curious: What are your favourite designs, projects, artworks or brands that are making an impact on our society through design? Share it with Rosa via rosa@savviihq.com